LONDON, Feb 3: South African icon Nelson Mandela challenged leaders of rich nations on Thursday to ease the plight of the poor by slashing debt, boosting aid and making world trade fairer.
On the eve of a meeting in London of G7 finance ministers, the political prisoner cum world diplomat told a cheering throng of several thousand people in Trafalgar Square that now was the time for action.
Looking very frail and supporting himself with a stick, Mr Mandela told the rally: "Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times ... that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils.
"In this new century, millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved and in chains," he added. "They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has vowed to make Africa one of the priorities of his presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations this year. Mr Mandela will take his message on Friday directly to the finance ministers when British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown opens the meeting.
Mr Brown shares many of the same aims. He wants debts that are costing the world's poorest nations - mostly African - $39 billion a year wiped out, trade rules to be made more even-handed and new sources of long-term aid.
Also on the agenda of the weekend meeting will be reducing currency volatility and making exchange rates more flexible. China, at whom the flexibility call is aimed, is not ready to cede to demands to liberalize the yuan from its fixed exchange rate.
G7 countries want the Chinese to allow the yuan to rise so that the rest of the world does not bear the brunt of the dollar's depreciation as investors fret about the giant US current account and trade deficits.
Mr Brown has said the G7 will discuss steps the US is taking to bring those deficits down but added that each continent had a part to play in fostering economic stability and prosperity.
Although he formally declared his own retirement from politics and diplomacy last June just before his 86th birthday, Mr Mandela said he couldn't resist the call to help Africa's poor.
"I recently formally announced my retirement from public life and should not really be here," he said on Thursday. "However, as long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest."
He was speaking as part of the charity-driven "Make Poverty History" campaign. "In 2005, there is a unique opportunity for making an impact," said the Nobel peace laureate who spent nearly 27 years in apartheid jails before becoming the country's first black president from 1994 to 1999.
"Tomorrow, here in London, the G7 finance ministers can make a significant beginning," he added. "Do not look the other way. Do not hesitate. Recognize that the world is hungry for action, not words. Act with courage and vision." -Reuters
